


That One Time a Mortal Busted the Mist and Did Homework

by minnemouse_BEANS



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: AH YES, finally getting around to posting all my old shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:55:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27073822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minnemouse_BEANS/pseuds/minnemouse_BEANS
Kudos: 4





	That One Time a Mortal Busted the Mist and Did Homework

**Kari O’Neil**

The first time it happened, she hadn’t understood it. What it meant, what it implied. She’d just been there. 

She’d been sitting in her history class two weeks after her junior year began, admiring the ponytail of the guy sitting in front of her. It had been thick, sleek, and obviously well-maintained, and she’d been considering asking how he got it like that, as she always had issues with fly-aways and the like, and while it wasn’t world-shattering, it was exasperating.

He was bent over his work and just for a second, that long, black ponytail appeared… odd. 

Thicker, nearly impossibly thick, and sorta blue, like the scales of an indigo snake when the sun hit it just right. Or, perhaps, a crow. 

At the time, however, all it had made her think of was the sea at night, when all was still, and there was little light.

She blinked a few times, and then, his hair was back to being that very dark brown that was usually called black when people talked hair color, and she assumed it to be a trick of the light.

Except, it happened again. 

A month later, as she and him wound up lab partners (the teacher had had to rearrange, as a student had left and Kari had been in a group of three) for a science project in the one other class they shared, it happened again. 

This time, she was looking right at him. He’d tied his hair back in a low bun to keep it away from the Bunsen burner, and he looked right at her, opening his mouth to speak.

He. 

Just. 

Looked. 

_ Wrong.  _

His hair was back to that blue-black thing, his eyes, which had been a brownish green just seconds before, were suddenly a dark blue-green, like she’d seen at some beaches in Florida, swirling with little hints of white, like the crests of waves. 

Pale, pale blue sclera and teeth of the same color that were impressively sharp. 

Bluish purple tongue and gums

It took a whole conversation for the previous reality to snap back into place, and she was glad when it did. 

It was terrifying to look at someone and, for a split second, understand that, whatever they were, they were  _ not _ human.

But, alas, it was hard to stop seeing it after that. 

He’d stick out his tongue at someone and she’d notice that it was impossibly long and pointy. 

He’d start glowing a little, seemingly to see better.

He’d get into an argument with someone and his voice would boom and echo. 

He’d reach in the general direction of his water bottle and have it fly to his hand. 

He had gills on his neck.

She got used to it. 

She drew him after a while, just to document what she was looking at. He looked a little like some kind of fantasy character, but it was so much more terrifying to see it in real life. It became somewhat normal, eventually. 

Eventually, she began researching just what he might be. 

It was hard at first. 

You couldn’t just Google it, as it turned out, but after a long time of wading through books on books about all sorts of magical creatures of varying lifespan, typically-observed cruelty, typically-observed intelligence, usual abilities, so on and so forth, interspersed with periods of not having time, dropping her obsession out of frustration, or just feeling like if she had to read another digital copy of an ancient text, she was going to lose it, she got it. 

A creature that was half human and half devine, warriors, they were, soldiers of gods, slayers of monsters. 

“Demigods,” Percy read over her shoulder. “Hey I was hoping to catch you in here for that history project on Genghis Khan, but if you’re busy, I can catch you later.”

“Oh, hi, no I’m not busy,” it felt weird and vaguely upsetting that he’d caught her. Somewhere along the line, she’d begun considering him a friend, but it didn’t mean that answers weren’t important to her, and she really did want to know, in case he’d turned out to be something dangerous. Guys with sharp, blue teeth and hydrokinesis are not normal. “I’ve got the essay if you’ve got the PowerPoint. Send it to me, and I’ll skim it here and really edit it tonight.” 

“Yeah, sure, and same.” Percy got his laptop out and signed on. He sent her the thing and she sent the essay. “Whatcha doing researching demigods, you got a project for that lit course you’re taking? Something to do with the Iliad, maybe?” 

“Yeah, it’s for that.” She realized her mistake as he quirked an eyebrow. His mother’s fiance, a woman named Marcia Garcia, taught that class. He’d been testing her. 

He started laughing. “Good God, you’re a bad fucking liar. You could have just asked, you know, it would have saved you some trouble.” He wiped tears from the corners of his eyes, grinning. “Right on the money, by the way. Also, I’ve known you’ve been onto me since that first science project. You aren’t all that great at not acting surprised.”

“You mean to tell me that I wasted months on this and you knew the whole time? And I nailed it?” 

“Yep. At first I was waiting for you to ask, and then I figured you forgot. And, yep, son of Poseidon.” 

“Huh. I guess life is funny like that sometimes. That tongue is fuckin’ impressive, by the way.”

“That’s definitely a demigod thing. We all have tongues like that, because it’s a good way for kids who don’t know how to glow on command, which is the other on command thing, the voice thing is more of, like just a thing that happens when we’re speaking to large crowds, arguing, or otherwise being loud, I guess,” he inhaled, “ _ anyway _ , the long, pointy, purple tongue and purple gums thing is a good way for those kids to get found by older demigods. It’s a common trait that you don’t have to learn to control or be particularly loud to display.” 

“Well I’ll be damned,” she said, “anyway, this PowerPoint looks good.”


End file.
